The shipping industry has entered an era of digital transformation and sustainable operations. To weather the above challenges Wartsila has merged its Marine Voyage and Marine Power Divisions to head up the future of fleet operations.
In view of these developments Wartsila Greece organised a seminar with the title “Sustainability Strategies: The future of fleet operations” to inform its clients of the new environmental and digital challenges in shipping.
Mrs. Helena Athoussaki, head of ESG Motor Oil Group, emphasized the pressure from regulators, investors and clients concerning decarbonization along with the challenges and the available solutions. She highlighted that decarbonisation is a part of a wider sustainability strategy whereby a company must develop a short-medium and long-term plan with specific targets, goals and performance analysis. As she said there are several ways to measure the performance and the reduction of emissions in ships in the effort to follow an efficient environmental strategy.She also presented the ESG criteria, the importance of the ESG risk evaluation and ESG reporting that has to be auditable and transparent. Last, Mrs. Athoussaki, underlined that digitalization plays a significant role to decarbonization but it requires commitment and change management.
Next speaker was Mr. Grant Hunter, Director for Standards, Innovation and Research, BIMCO who presented the issue “Accelerated digital transformation is the pathway to decarbonisation”.
He outlined that some of the potential speed reductions solutions are Hull Coating, Waste Heat Recovery, LNG/LPG as fuel, CCS, etc. Digital technologies have also significant impact on decarbonization.
In conclusion digitalization and decarbonisation will be the most important powers of change in shipping and shipping companies must not wait from IMO or a similar body such as EU in order to proceed with the adoption of smart solutions for a sustainable development.
Mr. Pankaj Khanna, CEO, Heidmar referred to “Environmental Regulations – Threat or Opportunity? Untangling the Mess”.
He spoke about the commercial impact of the EEXI /CII regulations on the tanker industry. The use of EPL to meet the EEXI regulations may hinder some older ships from meeting charter party speeds, however, overall the reduction of speed will be good for tanker demand as the market will need more ships. The CII regulations, in particular, will make non eco vessels less attractive commercially from 2024 onwards and also lead to some unusual trading patterns. He highlighted the potential problems with the CII regulations with regards to time spent in port and on short-haul voyages. He also referred to the inclusion of shipping in the EU Trading system and its financial impact. In conclusion he pointed out that the coming decarbonization regulations are a threat if one is not proactive particularly for owners of non-eco ships.
Christos Matsikoudis, Area Sales Manager Eastmed, Wärtsilä Voyage presented Wartsila’s Fleet decarbonization Strategies and introduced the concept of Smart Marine Eco system which is all about smart vessels, smart ports, green fuels, ship modelling, digitalization, autonomous shipping and Just in time arrivals at ports.
Mr. Matsikoudis pointed out that if we do not act immediately the 80% of the fleet in 2030 will be non CII compliant.
Then he presented how Wartsila’s Fleet Optimisation Solution platform embodies the smart marine ecosystem and constitutes a great inventory and visualization tool supporting Wartsila’s individual ship modelling and retrofit options for CII compliance. Wartsila is not a mere manufacturer of marine engines but has been transformed to an end to end provider with integration form “propeller to bridge.”
The digitalization in maritime will happen only if all stakeholders collaborate. Having data doesn’t mean being digital, concluded Mr. Matsikoudis.
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